senora.

Erica, Ana, Gretchen and I

This is a picture of my roommates and I with our Senora here in Spain, Ana, on St. Patrick's Day!

i am cultured.

So this past weekend we experienced two major cultural events in Spain- Las Fallas y la Corrida de Toros (bull fight!)

Las Fallas took place in Valencia on the East coast...so we got on a bus on Friday afternoon around noon and arrived in Valencia around 4ish. There were thousands and thousands and thousands of people there....the streets were jam packed!! But basically in all the streets were huge float-like arrangements...crazy scenes from fairy tales or stories. So during the evening we walked around looking at them while people were setting off firecrackers and fireworks everywhere. Then at midnight they burned all the "fallas." We obviously would pick the worst falla to stand in front of to wait to burn...because it never did. Bad choice. But it was cool to actually be in Valencia for this national holiday and see this all go down.


THE BURNING FALLA...this is what the streets looked like...

THE FALLA BEFORE...

Then Sunday we went to a bull fight! Bull fighting season is March-October in Spain, but right now the novice bullfighters are the only ones participating. So although our bulls weren't as big as normal and the torreros weren't "official," it was still very cool to see. We had great seats too! But what basically happened was there were three torreros, or bullfighters. A bull would be released into the ring and the people in the ring would try to make the bull real angry by teasing it with brightly colored pink capes. Then in the second part the "picadores" would come out on a horse and the bull would charge the horse and the picador on top would stab the bull in the neck to try and get it's neck muscles to weaken. Next, they would take six knifes and shove then into the bull's back to get the bull even more mad. That's when the torrero would come out. He has a red cape and would wave it around in front of the bull to have the bull charge it...his goal was to do as many dangerous movements while remaining very close in distance to the bull. After that, he would take his sword and kill the bull...then they would drag the bull out of the ring and the next bull fighter would enter....whoever had the most "professional" moves and greatest audience approval would win the competition. Yes, it's a tad cruel but it's Spain's national sport and I'm glad I got to experience it.

The best torrero and his gang...

At the end of this week our spring break begins....we're heading to Paris, France for four days and then to Athens, Greece!! We then will be back in Madrid for Easter weekend!!! SOO excited!!

bonjour francia

(Biarritz)

So this past week was amazing! For our culture class we traveled to northern Spain (Pais Vasco) for a few days and then decided that since we were so close to France we would just hop the border and spend the rest of the weekend in the beautiful city of Biarritz.

So we left Wednesday morning on our bus and stopped at a bodega (wine cellar) in La Rioja on the way up. After getting a tour from one of the guides on how they made and where they kept the wine, we got to do a little wine tasting ourselves. I ACTUALLY found a wine that I don't hate. I don't remember exactly what it is called but it was a mixture between white wine and red wine.

After the winery, we got back on our bus and headed to Bilbao, where we would be spending our first night. We checked into our hotel and then our professor took us to the downtown area where we had our first experience with the Basque country's "pintxos." Pintxos are basically the same thing as tapas, which I guess could be comparable to appetizers in the US. So we explored a few different pintxo bars- each one seeming to be better and better.

(PINTXOS)

The next morning we headed to the Guggenheim museum...I think my favorite part about the museum was the actual building and structure itself. The exhibit at the time inside was composed of objects created from old sinks, pipes and bike pieces...not exactly my cup of tea.

We then stopped at Guernica (the city that was bombed where Picasso got his inspiration from for his painting) and toured the town hall and then had prolly the best lunch EVERRR. We had a 5 course meal and I have never been so full!

After that we got back on the bus and headed to San Sebastian, which is supposed to be one of the most gorgeous cities in Spain. But of course the whole time we were there it was rainy and cold (side note: according to our senora, this is the coldest winter Spain has had in FOREVER- perfect.) But we once again explored the downtown area, did a little window shopping and had some more famous "pintxos." The next day we headed to the Chillida museum with large sculptures and then our class trip was up.

So then our trip to France began! We took a metro to the border of France and from there took a train about a half hour to the city of Biarritz. We stayed in this cute little bed and breakfast that was a two minute walk from the beach...and the best part was: we had sun! Although it was still pretty chilly, the sun made a huge difference.

So we were pretty tired that day but we walked around a little and had lunch/dinner. The next day we got breakfast in bed (greatest chocolate croissant!) and then decided to do a little shopping. Believe it or not, I caved in and got a Long Champ bag...it's actually pretty cute though. :)

The hardest part about Biarritz was not being able to understand a SINGLE word though...besides bon jour and au revoir I just had to smile at people and hope someone spoke english.

On Sunday we had to head back to Madrid- and even though we seemed pretty close it took us 12 hours to get home...from the train station to the metro, metro to train station, 5 hour train ride to madrid and a metro ride home...

But I think this trip has been one of my favorites so far! Bearritz was just absolutely beautiful and we had a really fun group!

LOVE

So since we have sadly reached the halfway point....

WHAT I ABSOLUTELY LOVE ABOUT MADRID

1). THE FOOD....especially tortialla and paella. Literally everything that is made in our house though is just SO GREAT. And I have become a lot more of an adventurous eater as well--I've eaten fish, vegetables and sooo many things I thought I would never like.

2). THE NIGHTLIFE...needless to say the nightlife is extremely different here...we don't leave to go out until after 11 and then don't return home until like 5ish. It's crazy but it's how they do it.

3). Since things don't open until later or are usually closed on the weekends, it's okay to sleep in late because there is nothing else to do!

4). THE PEOPLE...they've all been so friendly!

5). TRANSPORTATION...surprisingly I thought that having to take the bus and metro was going to suck...but it has saved our lives. It gets us where we want to be quickly.

6). CLASS?...well not to say that I love going to class because, frankly, I believe that school and that sort just get in the way here...but in relation to what I would be doing back in Dallas I would say that school is a lot LESS intense here.

7). TRAVELING...i love being so close to many cool places that you can make a weekend trip out of...and I love that part of our culture class involves traveling to places like Andalucia, Segovia, Escorial and Pais Vasco.

8). The fact that cabs are really cheap! Woo!

9). Retiro Park...huge and gorgeous park.

10). The monuments and museums that are everywhereee

11). Shopping!

WHAT I DON'T LIKE SO MUCH...

1). Sopa de ajo...its garlic soup and it's supposed to be absolutely incredle but I just don't get it...it is a soup that has soggy bread in it and does not taste good...but when our senora serves it...we have to eat so we have no other choice.

2). WASHING CLOTHES...they don't have dryers here so everything is hung dry...which means everything is crispy and crunchy...and let me tell you, crunch towels and shirts are not so fun.

3.) Dinner time....i thought i would get used to eating dinner at 9:30 every night...but not so much...come 8 oclock i am usually dying of hunger...

4). The fact that the metro closes at 1:30 am...in my oppinion it should just be open all night. It would make our lives so much easier.

5.) Homework, papers, midterms and projects...I don't think they should be required.

6.) I miss my blackberry...i have an oldschool phone but I miss MY phone.

7). The shower...we have to hold the shower head...and this gets challenging when you're trying to put shampoo in your hair because you have to put the hose down on the floor and step on it so it doesn't spray you everywhere.

halfway?

So now that midterms are done things have calmed down once again...last Friday we went on a class trip to Escorial and saw the Palace that Felipe II had created...it was HUGE. Gigantic library, church and palace all in one. But it was really beautiful! After that we went to the Valle de los Caidos which was constructed by prisoners during the Spanish Civil War for Franco.

After that we spent the weekend celebrating one of our friend's 21st birthdays here in Madrid. I feel like even though we have been here for two months now, there is still so much in this city left to do and see!

Saturday we found a store called Taste for America...it has food shipped in from the states. I bought peanut butter, Pop-Tarts and a bag of small 100 grand bars. I spent about the equivalent of 24 bucks on all of it. Ridiculous? Absolutely. Worth it? Absolutely.

Then Saturday night I experienced my first Spanish cinema. There is a movie theatre right behind our flat so we walked over to see the movie Celda 211. It was actually a really interesting movie that has won a TON of awards here in Spain. Too bad I didn't understand most of the conversations between the characters...but I understood the general idea of it so I think that's good enough.

This week was just another week of classes...and then last night we actually went to a "zarzuela" with our class which was kind of like a spanish musical...It was called Dona Francisquita and interestingly enough, our program coordinator's grandfather was the writer of this very famous spanish zarzuela so our program coordinator owns the rights to it.

Gretchen's best friend is in town this weekend from home on her spring break so we are just staying in Madrid this weekend...this actually is going to be one of our last full weekends in Madrid because next week we will be in the north of spain/south of france and then we have spring break. So the semester is going by wayyyyyyy to quickly!!